Steel Thorns and Black Roses
by Phen82
Summary: PostHBP. Contains Spoilers!
1. Chapter 1

The street was quiet, almost too quiet for a Friday night. The moon was hidden by a cloud, and the decrepit street lamps failed to illuminate the street, merely adding to the gloomy atmosphere. The mist that had settled over Britain seemed almost condensed on this street. It was thick, like a fog and obscured most of the houses from the vision of any passer by.

A solitary figure staggered up the street, looking slightly confused as they counted out each house to try and find their destination. Greasy black hair seemed almost gelled back from the figures face due to the moisture in the air which had condensed on it. The man looked up at a small house in the middle of the street and clutched the parcel he was carrying tighter against his person, as if afraid some mysterious force was about to take it away from him.

He made his way up the path towards the door, looking each way as he went and pointing his wand in all directions, seemingly afraid of some invisible pursuer. Satisfied that there was no one following him, he knocked hesitantly on the door. It took several moments before anything happened. He raised his hand to knock again but was interrupted by a voice.

"Password?" Came the raspy enquiry.

"Sentience." He replied softly.

There was a pause.

"Name?" The voice enquired.

"Severus Snape." He replied again.

Another pause.

"You're not on the list."

"Please," he said. "I need to speak with her urgently. It's a matter of great importance."

There was a longer pause this time. His shoulders slumped in defeat and he turned to leave, when the door was suddenly opened, spilling light onto the porch where he stood. He was grabbed roughly and hauled inside, registering that the door had been slammed and locked directly after he had been thrown inside. He looked up and noticed that there were three wands pointed directly in his face.

"I'm not here to cause trouble." He said shakily, watching the three figures carefully. One of them, who had been holding a paper, threw it down at him. He glanced at it and noticed with a sickening swell in his abdomen that it was a detailed account of the funeral which had just taken place for Dumbledore.

"I can explain…" He started, but stopped when one of the wands was pushed into his throat, threatening to cut off his air supply. He stilled, unsure of what to expect from these creatures. After all, they weren't quite human.

"Save the crap for someone who actually has the time." The figure said, reaching out and grabbing him roughly by the robes and setting him to his feet.

"Where are you taking me?" Snape asked.

They laughed.

"You said you needed to see her right? We're doing you a favour. Now shut up and move." The figure replied and motioned for him to go forward.

Snape did as he was told. He was led through many corridors before finally reaching a room with a large mahogany doorframe and what looked to be an ivory handle. His guide knocked firmly on the door twice and waited.

"Enter." Came the response from within.

The figure motioned Snape to enter, so he grasped the doorhandle and opened the door.

The room was small, but a lack of furniture meant that it didn't look crowded or cluttered. There was a mahogany desk in the middle of the room with two chairs. One of them was on the side of the door, and the other facing the adjacent wall, which was currently occupied. A woman spun in the seat from her position looking out the window and looked at him for the first time. Snape shivered, as if the air in the room had suddenly dropped by about 10 degrees.

Her skin was pale, like moonlight. Too pale for something that was alive, but then again, Snape reflected, there was a thin line between life and death for these creatures. Her hair was silvery and she was so thin that every bone in her body seemed to show through the robes she was wearing. Her face was also gaunt and skeletal. The effect was frightening.

"Severus Snape." She said softly. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

She watched him curiously as she gestured the seat before her. He sat down. With a wave of her hand the door closed and locked, though her gaze never wavered.

"I had nowhere else to turn. This was the only place I could think of. They're after me." Snape said, somewhat disjointedly. The effect of being awake for nearly 5 days straight and being on the run from aurors had taken its toll.

"Yes." She said. "You could expect this kind of trouble when you consider what you are being charged with."

Her eyes bore into his own, as if seeking answers that he couldn't voice.

"But it's not what they think!" He said, half hysterically. He began laughing, not joyful laughter, but desperate sounds which could almost be mistaken for sobs. "He knew! He set me up for this! I didn't have a choice!"

"There is always a choice Severus, even when it seems that we have none. The question is, did you make the right choice?" She said softly in reply.

"I don't know." He said lamely, resting his head in his hands. "Please help me! I don't know who else to turn to, he said that you would be willing…"

"Child, do you think you would be here if I did not know your story? Do you honestly think I would have seen you tonight if I were not going to keep to my end of the agreement?" she replied, her fingers interlacing themselves in front of her as she watched him in amusement.

"But… I…. How?" He stammered.

"You are tired Severus. You haven't slept in days. You shall rest, then we shall discuss this further." She replied, pressing a button on her desk and turning her chair back to the wall as it had been when he had arrived.

The door opened suddenly with a loud click and the man who had led him here came in and grabbed his arm.

"Goodnight Severus." She whispered as the man led him out of the room.

After they had left she sighed and opened a locket that rested against her breast. A picture of a wizened old wizard smiled and waved merrily at her.

"Albus you old fool, what have you gotten me into this time?" She whispered, then closed the locket and continued to gaze out the window and into the fog.


	2. Chapter 2

Snape woke in a soft bed, piled high with blankets, yet he was freezing. He turned in the bed, hoping to gather some warmth so that he could go back to sleep, but found himself staring into a pair of dark eyes, which startled him so badly that he nearly fell off the bed. She seemed amused

"Good morning." She said softly, adjusting the blankets so that he was fully covered once more. He shivered in response. "I trust that you slept well?"

He nodded, sitting up slightly in order to feel less intimidated by her. Ordinarily he was scared of no one, but the creature before him could either help him, or become something that even the worst nightmare couldn't conjure.

"You should not have come here." She said harshly, her eyes glinting maliciously.

"He said you would help me." Snape replied.

"He should have known me better than that." She said matter-of-factly as she ran a finger along a scar that showed on his collarbone. He shuddered involuntarily. "You should have known me better than that."

He laughed then. A mournful laugh.

"What I knew before doesn't matter. I have no other place to turn. If you won't help me…"

"Don't try playing on my sympathies. I'm not human, as you yourself have pointed out on so many occasions. Pity is a human concern and you'll find that it isn't indulged much around here." She said venomously.

There was a pause as they looked at each other, as if calculating the weakness of the enemy before them.

"Well what do you plan to do then?" He finally asked, sounding weary and resigned.

She reached out both hands and grabbed his face, pulling it so that it was level with her own and leaned forward as if to kiss him. When she was a fraction of a centimetre away from him, she closed her eyes and breathed deeply. His body began convulsing and she released him immediately, causing his body to fall back onto the bed into the bed. He lay panting for breathe and looking slightly confused and not a little scared. She giggled, causing him to look up at her. Her eyes were sparkling and there was an eerie glow to her cheeks that had not been there before.

"What did you do to me?" He panted, feeling as if his chest had been crushed and his body set to ice.

"Insurance." She said dreamily. "I've decided to help you."

"Why?" He asked.

"Take a look for yourself." She replied, leaning forward to look directly into his eyes. He groaned as the memory surfaced within his own mind.

"Let's just say I'm curious." She said, smiling.

Snape was beginning to think that coming here might not have been such a good idea.

* * *

**Many miles away…**

There was music and fanfare, everything that you could expect at a wedding. The food was wonderful, the banter light-hearted, and the couple elegant despite the marred features of the groom. Harry sat back to reflect as he watched the happy couple waltzing.

The events of the last two weeks seemed a blur. It was almost impossible to believe that he would never again have to return to the Dursleys. He had gone there first, as Dumbledore had wanted.

_Dumbledore._

He felt his heart clench painfully for a moment before filling with anger and hatred against the man who had murdered his mentor.

_Snape will pay._

The party began to wind up. He, Hermione and Ron were leaving that night to stay in a motel near Godric's Hollow. It made the sleeping arrangement easier for the Weasleys, considering the fact that they were housing the Delacour family at the present, and also meant that Harry could continue with his mission a little sooner.

Hermione came up beside him, followed closely by Ron.

"Are you ready to go now Harry?" She asked. "We should get moving soon."

Harry nodded and quickly went over to say farewell to what was left of the guests. He's been in such a daze, he noted with a little disappointment, that he'd missed out on farewelling the new couple.

Once they were ready, they gathered their trunks together. Hermione frowned.

"How are we getting there again?" She asked sweetly.

Harry rolled his eyes. He should have seen this coming.

"We're apparating remember?" Ron replied, stuffing a left-over bit of wedding cake into his mouth.

"But Harry, you know you aren't supposed to apparate yet. You don't have your licence!" Hermione said, putting her hands on her hips in the perfect imitation of Mrs Weasley.

"Hermione, I managed to apparate myself and Dumbledore back to Hogsmeade. I think I'll be fine with a trunk." He replied.

Hermione clicked her tongue angrily and looked as if she was about to argue when Harry disapparated.

Hermione appeared next to him, looking rather ruffled and Ron appeared a moment later looking a little green.

"Here we are." Harry said, pointing to the small building in front of them. They entered the door quickly, eager to get out of the mist that seemed to be getting thicker by the moment. They didn't seem to notice the dark shadow watching them from the corner of the building.

Harry surveyed his room. It was quite small and a little grubby. Not nearly as nice as the room at the Leaky Cauldron where he had stayed before his third year.

A storm was gathering outside. There was a loud wind that seemed to shake the windows from their frames, and the spattering of the rain against the rooftop provided an annoying crackle to the sensitive ear.

Harry quickly changed into his pyjamas and nestled under the covers, not realising just how tired he was until his head had touched the pillow and he immediately fell into a deep slumber.

He awoke with a start less than an hour later, absolutely freezing and unsure of why he had woken. He reached for his wand, and cursed when he realised it wasn't where he'd left it on the bedside table. He turned on the lamp to see if it had fallen beside the bed.

"Looking for this?" A soft voice whispered in his ear.

He jerked in the direction of the voice and saw skeletal woman standing over his with his wand dangling from her hand. He reached out to take it from her, but she pulled it back away from him and placed it into one of the pockets of her voluminous robes.

"Now, now, there's no need for that just yet my child." She said fondly, placing his glasses on his face.

He glanced around the room and ascertained two things in his sleep-addled mind. The first was that there was no deatheater mask or wand on this woman, and the second, that there was no one else in the room. Feeling a little more confident about his safety, he turned his attention back to the woman.

In darkness, she could have been mistaken for an Inferi, but the light from the lamp highlighted her dark eyes and caused a sparkle that no corpse could achieve. Her hair was long and completely white, though she didn't really look that old. Her skin was deathly pale and she was so thin that she really did look like a living, breathing skeleton.

"Mr Potter," She breathed. "You have no idea how it feels to finally meet you. Your legend precedes you of course."

"Um… I don't mean to be rude, but could you please tell me who you are, and why you are in my motel room?" He asked grumpily.

"Forgive me," She said, reaching her hand out and smiling graciously. "My name is Alaria Dalmones. As for why I am here? I required an audience with you, that I am afraid could no longer be delayed."


End file.
